Dr. Andrew Wallace PhD BEng(hons) EurIng

Introduction

How do we move form today's unsustainable money based socioeconomic system (A) to tomorrow's sustainable money-less socioeconomic system (B)? This article presents EOS's proposal for answering that question. Our transition plan focuses on a set of stepping stones that move us in the direction of a sustainable money-less socioeconomic system. The first part of this article presents the starting point; what we have today. Then the article gives a brief outline of the network we envision as both an experimental platform and as the beginnings of a new civilisation. The article then looks at the stepping stones and the problems we might encounter. The next section then looks at what we have done so far.

The Starting Point

 

The transition plan starts with the following set of conditions :

 

1. We have a clear goal position. A money-less sustainable [Sah2, Wal1] socioeconomic system based on the application of science to society. EOS has a proposed structure based around holons.
2. We have little or no funding. We might have the ability to make small contributions and the more we have the larger our finances become but essentially the plan assume that we have little or no finances.
3. We have a body of people willing to put time and effort into moving from A to B. Each of us has some skill or expertise we can bring to the transition plan.
4. We should not accept loans or other kinds of debts. If we have debts we become slaves to the debt which can distract from the purpose of the plan.
5. We recognise that we can't jump from today's system over night to tomorrow's system.

 

The plan has a flexible nature so if the starting conditions change we can adapt. Also we have a focus on Europe but can extend beyond that if the opportunity arises (such as Africa of the America).

 

The Network

 

EOS proposes a structure for a future society that has its roots in the holon [Wal2] concept and has a distributed nature. This type of structure allows us to add new parts to the system without significantly disturbing the whole structure.  The transition plan involves forming a network of holons [Srdoc, EOS2]. Each holon runs itself autonomously but still works towards the overall goal of the network. Individuals form the basic holons and they group together to form communities or  companies, which also form examples of holons. Companies and communities can then join together to form larger holons as needed.

 

The work the communities under take takes place in the holons in the form of projects.

 

We refer to this network as a technate.

 

Stepping Stone

 

Each holon takes the form of a Not for Profit Organisation (NPO). The NPO becomes the basic building block. The “Not for Profit” attribute forms the first step away from a money based system. Each NPO still makes profit but it does not exist for the purpose of making  a profit. That means that each NPO does not distribute profit to its members and has no share holders.

 

Working from conditions 2 and 3 above, we propose the formation of simple NPOs, which form the first stepping stone. These NPOs should carry out work that we have the expertise to do and does not cost much, if anything, to set up.  These first stepping stones aim to generate some income back into the network or provide a service for the network.

 

The second stepping stone takes the form of larger companies. The first stepping stones will probably remain at the level of hobby companies; generating some income but hardly enough work or money for employing people although some might transform from a hobby company to one that can employ people. The second set of companies should have enough business to employ people and generate larger income.

 

As we lay the first and second steeping stone we should also establish a fund to buy land. When we have reached the point that we can secure some income we can start looking at the the next steeping stone; communities. These communities should form the homes of the people who work in the NPOs and their families. The communities will work without money internally. That means the people who live in the communities will not get an income for their work in the NPO (or will have a join income for the community). The community, however, will provide food and housing as well as a good standard of living for all the people who live in the community. We aim to start each community with a minimum of 10 – 15 people and to expand to a maximum of 200 people.

 

At this stage we have started to move even further away from the money based world as we have started forming  the money-less interior of the technate.

 

The next stepping stone involves adding to the network We should add new NPOs as we can and once we have secured finances, add more communities. As each new community or company becomes part of the network the functionality of the network increases. As it does so it has less and less dependency on the out side. The network then becomes one of cooperation [EOS1] where each NPO provides something to the network and in return gets something from the network in a process of reciprocal altruism.

 

The final stepping stones involve establishing a network that has no dependency to the out side; a true money-less society composed of a network of communities. EOS has a European focus but when we reach this stage we hope that a number of other organisations, world around, would have worked on similar plans. We can then link up with all the other groups and form a cooperative money-less sustainable socioeconomic Type I civilisation (a Terran Confederacy of autonomous communities).

 

Each step should from a learning opportunity that feeds back into the next steps. So, the network forms an experiment, especially in the early days. Adding NPOs to the network gives us an opportunity to correct mistakes or problems from earlier additions. As we expand we should have a clearer idea of what works and what doesn't.

 

Problems

 

This approach has a number of problems. The first lies with getting the people together and to work in the right direction. EOS has only a handful of members but we have started to implement the plan. We hope that as other groups see what we have done they will either want to join our network as holons or take our ideas an implement them on other parts of the planet. Setting goals and having directors to check goals will help to ensure we all go in the same direction.

 

Another problem has to do with success. If our companies become successful we might attract too many people who only see the money making opportunity and ignore the purpose and intent of the network. The openness attribute [Sah1] and the role of directors can help towards preventing this but we might also need some legal foundations as well.

 

Another problem has to do with time. Our current socioeconomic system has already destroyed much of the natural ecosystem and possibly even started to collapse. As a result we might not have time to implement this plan. On the other hand, we might! We will only know through trying.

 

A Start

 

EOS has started working on this plan (see http://www.technate.eu). So far we have three organisations in the technate; EOS, Denia and Brain Box. EOS presents the ideology. Denia develops web pages and Brain Box provides server hardware. We can see the cooperation of the network even with these few elements as Denia designs the web site for EOS and Brain Box provides the servers for hosting it.

 

We now intend to add another company called Nu Ridle. Nu Ridle provides translation services; building on the fact that we have a number of members who can speak a number of languages. After that we intend to start a robotics company selling simple robots over the Internet.

 

We have also had talks with other groups and we hope that they will also join our network. The more we become; the more power we have to realise a money-less society.

 

We have plans in motion for forming three communities; one in Sweden called Aurora, one in Slovenia called Solaria and one in Poland called Nexon (we have take inspiration for the names from Asimov's Foundation / Robots Universe).

 

Summary

 

We have very little in the way of resources; we have a handful of people and little finances. Therefore, we have developed a plan to grow a holonic network. Taking what we have today we propose build a network of Not for Profit Organisations that secure finances that will allow us to add communities. As the network grows we become less and less dependent on the money based world. Step by Step we move from A to B.

 

References

 

[Sah1] Jure Sah. “Accountability system within a Technate.” http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=169:accountability-system-within-a-technate&catid=35:social&Itemid=95

 

[Sah2] Jure Sah “Sustainability”. http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=156:sustainability&catid=27:engineering&Itemid=95

 

[EOS1] EOS “NPO Cooperative in Prototechnate.” http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=153:npo-cooperative-in-prototechnate&catid=27:engineering&Itemid=95

 

[EOS2] EOS “Proto-Technate” http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56:a-proto-technate&catid=26:infrastructure&Itemid=95

 

[Srdoc] Igor Srdoc. “Technate As a Network”. http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102:technate-as-a-network&catid=23:economics&Itemid=95

[Wal1] Andrew Wallace. “Sustainability and Society.”  http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76:sustainability-and-society&catid=23:economics&Itemid=95

 

[Wal2] Andrew Wallace. “Holons and a Holonic Society.” http://www.eoslife.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75:holons-and-a-holonic-society&catid=27:engineering&Itemid=95

Dr. Andrew Wallace PhD BEng(hons) EurIng

Abstract:

 

As our current socioeconomic system does not have a sustainable nature thus, it will collapse. This paper presents an alternative to today's system that utilises exergy as a common accountancy unit for a sustainable resource base socioeconomic system.  An item's cost, in terms of exergy, reflects the physical cost of the item. The system utilises management techniques such as optimisation, Life Cycle Analysis and Cost Based Analysis to produce items efficiently and minimise their exergy and environmental cost.

It stands evidently clear that NET has progressed extremely much from its roots as a cluster of individuals providing their energy into creating a realistic vision of how a better world might look like. These years have seen both successes and setbacks, with a new beginning marked by our first In Real Life meeting in Umeå, May 2009.

We are still a small movement, but we have learned how to crawl. Now, its the time to learn how to walk. The name change from NET to EOS represents a mere step in the process of improving this movement. I would here try to outline why the Board has made the decision of the name change from NET to EOS through a personal viewpoint, and I will discuss what this will mean in the article below.

Abstract

An eco-unit is an ecomimetic settlement invented by Folke Günther M.Sc. It is currently being implemented by a group led by Stephen Hinton (http://www.avbp.net/) in Sweden. Ecomimetic means “mimicking ecosystems”, as opposed to biomimetic, which means “mimicking biology”. The proposed technocratic eco-unit (TEU) is an eco-unit that has technocratic proposals implemented in it. In this article, the original eco-unit concept is presented, followed by the proposed technocratic modifications to the concept, and finally an analysis of advantages and potential problems with the TEU design. Since this is an exploratory article, further research is recommended before implementation of a TEU.

Introduction

Although the creation of a technate (a society operating under technocracy) is an eventual goal of the technocracy movement, intermediary steps may be taken to achieve that goal. Construction of one or more technocratic eco-units (TEU) is one of those possible intermediary steps. The TEU is a non-profit organization that can either stand alone or be part of a proto-technate. Also, the TEU may be viewed as a holon (part and/or whole) of a proto-Technate [9].

 

Abstract

A system of accountability is required within the Prototechnate and the Technate to ensure that it can function properly as it grows. This article suggests the use of a system of "Principles and Classes", which is a form of direct democracy that allows all members of a society to contribute to the principles of operation to be followed within it. It is expected that this system will have a positive influence on society both by increasing independence and having some positive psychological effects. The article also presents a practical implementation and has many loopholes already corrected, though further work may be required to make the system more usable and safer.

Introduction

Any group of people working together towards a common goal, need a relationship of trust in order to be able to cooperate. This relationship of trust requires an agreement, or a mechanism to ensure that all participants are going to abide by some shared set of rules, which ensure that people do in fact cooperate and don't do anything to harm each other or the goal they are pursuing^[1]. This mechanism is generally known as accountability, a system of responsibility which ensures people abide by a set of rules or face the consequences. ^[2]

A Technocratic society is not exempt from this requirement. While we do not believe it is the role of Technocracy to dictate how people should live, we do recognize that any society, including a Technate, requires dependable agreements between people in order to be able to operate and cooperate. This article presents a system dubbed "Principles and Classes", which is a form of direct democracy, that people can use in order to define, redefine and act by these rules, without the need for an elected leader.

By Enrique Lescure

Introduction

As you might be well aware, the Network of European Technocrats is proposing a future administrational structure governed through a technocracy characterised by functional sequences (informational nodes and channels) and holons (autonomous organisations).

This structure would be producing and conducting services after the wishes of each and every citizen through Energy Accounting. It would be kept in check by the merit that no one person controls more than her own area of expertise and function, thus creating a complex web without any clear command centre.

That is for how we intend to manage the resources, the production, the distribution and the recycling.

Now we should discuss how we intend to manage the people.

Abstract

Information exchange is a technical problem. Current solutions have not been able to entirely overcome several limitations connected with poor application of technology and lack of effort. This article suggests a technical solution named "XML over HTTP". The solution, when offered to industry in a proper way, could result in the large-scale implementation required to solve the problem. The article provides a comprehensive explanation of the problems and all the practical implementation details, as well as many examples, to help make this happen.

Introduction

In the world around us today, finding accurate information could be considered an art^[1][2]. While we do have research institutions and regulations set up to ensure that consumers are not being kept in the dark about issues that are important to their survival, such as whether the food we eat is safe^[3], whether there is going to be a natural disaster^[4], etc, the amount of information gathered is infinitely larger^[5] than the amount of information that trickles down to the general public. A whole industry of media has risen to solve this problem, but even the media often find information sufficiently hard to find, that they are not able to produce enough useful information to fill your daily newspaper^[6].

We are left in a situation where our researchers cannot get their information and end up using statistical averages and assumptions^[7], our media have no real information to work with and make up fantastic stories with a stereotypical lack of realism^[8], and our consumers cannot even know when they are getting to the real information after all of this, and end up with urban myths and conspiracy theories^[9]. To top it all off, it frequently assumed that keeping everybody well informed of the state of their environment is theoretically impossible and should not even be attempted^[10].

In this article I will present you with a technology that exists, and is ready for large-scale implementation. It can help us overcome these information exchange problems, with a very practical solution.

Abstract

A hi-tech society utilises energy, materials and information. Such a society utilises automation as much as possible to reduce work thus in such a society in becomes useful to use a measure of energy for resource monitoring and allocation. The article looks at the exergy concept as a way to measure energy utilised, materials and information for a hi-tech resourced based economy such as one that uses an energy accounting system.